Yeah, Louise! you tell 'em. Gore made the all too often mistake of not immediately addressing a snotty statement made by a right wing hack, naively thinking the truth of the matter would come out. But people in the media found the "invented the internet" statement catchy and funny, rather than a mischaracterization of the matter--or more concisely, a lie.

"The High Performance Computing and Communication Act of 1991 (HPCA) was a bill created and introduced by then Senator Al Gore (it was thus referred to as the Gore Bill. It was passed on December 9, 1991.

This bill led to the development of the National Research and Education Network (NREN) (which was referred to with the rhetoric of the Information Superhighway[6]). It also led to the development of the National Information Infrastructure (also discussed through the rhetoric of the Information Superhighway [7]) the High-Performance Computing and Communications Initiative (an off-shoot of the HPCA), the web browser Mosaic, and the creation of a high-speed fiber optic network that, when utilized, would help stimulate the economy."

No he didn't invent high-speed protocol transfers. He saw the implications and potential use of such a system and he wrote and sponsored the bill that paid for the development and utilization of such a system. He is one of the people responsible for the fact that there is an internet that you can mock and sneer at him on, misrepresenting and ridiculing his contributions.

He was ridiculed when he introduced it, as Conservatives at the time said it was an impractical expensive pork-barrel boondoggle that would never work. Now he is sneered at for daring to remind people that without him, there would be no internet as it exists today.

Those of you who scoff at Gore's statements should take a look at the history he is referring to. Your cynical contempt is misplaced. It's more properly directed at the people who have had a vested interest in trying to erase the historical truth.